Survey Shows Americans Treat Mobile Devices as Best Friends

In this post-modern world where personal technology reigns supreme
(particularly mobile devices), it is not outlandish to think that a
smartphone or tablet can become your best friend. Just how intimately
connected are we with our mobile devices? A new survey commissioned by
Citrix found that Americans admitted to spending almost every waking
minute with their devices, whether checking news and social media feeds
first thing each morning, eating every meal with device in hand, or
watching reality TV shows in secret.

The survey of more than 1,000 American smartphone and tablet owners ages
18 and older was conducted in January 2013 by Wakefield Research. It
reveals just how deep the relationship between man and machine can run,
even trumping the relationships people have with their families.

Like most close relationships, it’s not all fun and games. The survey
also highlights where the relationship between user and device can go
south. Among the findings:

Guess who’s coming to dinner

Any lunch date or dinner party can be ruined by an unwanted guest, but
what happens when that guest is a smartphone or tablet? This problem
appears to be on the rise, as a whopping 69 percent of mobile device
owners said it has been one day or less since they last ate a
meal without checking their device. And don’t blame the kids for
ignoring you at the dinner table. Only 66 percent of Millennials checked
their devices while sitting down for a meal in the past day compared to
68 percent of Gen Xers and 71 percent of Boomers.

A problem with over-sharing

While new technologies have made it easy to share videos with friends
and family across the globe, a majority of mobile device users (52
percent) expressed their desire for fewer shared videos. When asked
which of the following video types they wished people would stop
sharing, 45 percent ranked videos of kids as their number one choice.
“Holiday greetings” and pet videos ranked second and third with 42 and
41 percent, respectively. On the flip side, the survey found that we
have no qualms about sharing our own video content, even at the expense
of others. Among mobile device owners who recorded an embarrassing video
of someone in 2012, a majority (52 percent) are saving it to share with
others in 2013.

Idle time, alone time

When asked the primary reason for using their mobile devices, 64 percent
of survey respondents said “to keep myself from being bored.” The next
most popular reason, “to bring friends or family together,” was cited by
just 32 percent of respondents, which indicates that Americans may
prefer quality time with a mobile device to hanging out with a “real”
friend. Additionally, 46 percent copped to watching a television show
they would never watch with their friends, only in private. Among those
who confessed to secret TV behavior, the top show watched behind closed
doors was “Pawn Stars” (36 percent), followed by the “Storage Wars”
series (32 percent), and “The Real Housewives” (28 percent).

Our most trusted confidante

Mobile users trust the information they find on the Internet by a wide
margin – especially compared to information provided by their parents.
In fact, 55 percent said they trust “how-to” advice taken from the
Internet over advice from their parents. Though Millennials are the
first generation to grow up immersed in digital technology, they don’t
necessarily trust the Internet more than older Americans do: 62 percent
of Gen Xers compared to 54 percent of Millennials trust advice from the
mobile Web more than their parents.

A good friend is hard to find

Just as we get impatient with a friend who shows up late or takes too
long to text us back, nearly a third (30 percent) of the survey
respondents said that they will wait only eight seconds for a mobile Web
page to load before giving up. Along the same lines, 72 percent said
they are likely to abandon downloading a large file because of slow
download speeds. Mobile device users will not hesitate to throw in the
towel when response times are inadequate.

“These survey findings confirm suspicions that most of us are rendered
completely helpless when separated from our mobile devices, perhaps even
more than when we are pulled apart from our best friends,” said Mick
Hollison, vice president of Integrated Marketing and Strategy, Citrix.
“As our attachments to smartphones and tablets continue to grow deeper
and more intimate, companies must respond with new ways to empower
people to use their favorite devices across their personal and
professional lives. This will enable all of us to reach new levels of
productivity and prosperity.”

Seventy percent of smartphone and tablet owners actively choose to
stream content on a mobile device rather than a computer.

More than half (51 percent) of mobile device owners blame their
provider for slow-loading Web pages, while 49 percent blame the
website.

While a majority of mobile video is low-resolution (92 percent is less
than 360p), 64 percent of survey respondents think most of the mobile
videos they watch are primarily high-resolution.

Seventy-four percent of mobile video viewers seek out most of the
video they watch, rather than wait for it to come to them via friends
or advertisers.

Methodological Notes:

The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com)
on behalf of Citrix. It was distributed among 1,000 U.S. adult
smartphone or tablet owners ages 18 and older, between January 8 and
January 15, 2013, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas
have been set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the U.S.
adult smartphone or tablet owner population 18 and older.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude
of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of
interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For
the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in
100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1
percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews
had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the
sample.

Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the cloud computing company that enables mobile
workstyles – empowering people to work and collaborate from anywhere,
accessing apps and data on any of the latest devices, as easily as they
would in their own office – simply and securely. Citrix cloud computing
solutions help IT and service providers build both private and public
clouds – leveraging virtualization and networking technologies to
deliver high-performance, elastic and cost-effective services for mobile
workstyles. With market leading solutions for mobility, desktop
virtualization, cloud networking, cloud platforms, collaboration, and
data sharing, Citrix helps organizations of all sizes achieve the kind
of speed and agility necessary to succeed in an increasingly mobile and
dynamic world. Citrix products are in use at more than 260,000
organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Annual revenue in
2012 was $2.59 billion.

For Citrix Investors

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant
to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of
1933 and of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The
forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees
of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks
associated with the impact of the global economy and uncertainty in the
IT spending environment, including in revenue growth and recognition of
revenue, products and services, their development and distribution,
product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, including
risks associated with international growth and IT consolidation, as well
as other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any
forward-looking information contained in this press release or with
respect to the announcements described herein.

Citrix® is a registered trademark of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or
more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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